Healthcare in the US vs. the U.K

[MommyJogger]

I`ve had friends be billed 500$ for a saline drip - it`s water with a bit of salt, costs them pennies!

I agree with every single word of your post except for this, and I really just wanted to bring up that this is a huge part of the problem in the states. They can't just go to their chemical cabinet and mix up salt and water for the drips they give-- these have to be ordered from medical supply companies and if you've ever wondered who is really making the money off of the high cost healthcare in the US, it's be a toss up between the insurance companies and the medical/laboratory supply companies. We had to have RNAse-free saline for some of our lab experiments while I was a graduate student. Our experiment was sensitive enough that we weren't able to just mix salt with RNAse-free water and go. We had to order the crap and it was the most expensive salt water I have ever seen in my entire life. We spent about $700 on the equivalent of maybe 4-6 of the hanging saline bags you would get in the hospital and those weren't qualified as medical grade. We ended up having to spend more on water in that calendar year than it would have cost to pay the salary and tuition of another graduate student. There are so many regulations in place controlling which companies that labs and hospitals are allowed to buy from that it prevents any kind of price-lowering competition in the market. I fully believe that when hospitals charge someone $7 for a single tylenol that it's not from a $2 bottle they bought at the local walmart. There needs to be serious reform about where hospitals and labs are allowed to purchase their supplies. My boss has paid thousands out of pocket for cheap (identical) items on ebay or at walmart to avoid running out of grant money because we would otherwise be paying tens of thousands to the supply companies we're allowed to order from with grant money.
Rant over.

 

[Jes.shortcake]

Healthcare in the US is a joke. What sucks is since I was just laid off and we had insurance through my work me and my husband are going without insurance now. He works 2 jobs so our income is too high to qualify for Medicaid. Yet we still can't afford individual insurance plans. We budgeted our money and cut some things out just to get our son on an individual plan. We'll do whatever we have to so he's covered. So now we have to pay some stupid fine for being uninsured. Been insured my whole life and the year they start requiring everyone have insurance I get laid off and lose my insurance...seriously?

I wish we had more maternity leave. We get 12 weeks FMLA time if you qualify. But it's unpaid. If you have disability insurance you can get 6 weeks paid. Mostly we have to use a combination of disability, built up vacation days, and unpaid FMLA.

We had a preemie in September but here if your baby is in the hospital longer then 30 days then their NICU stay is covered by Medicaid no matter your income. So thankfully we were able to get that help.

 

[emyandpotato]

Here is what we have in Quebec (french Canada):

-free universal healthcare as the rest of Canada of course; we can see any doctor or specialist we want
-a year of paid parental leave - mother gets 70% of her income for 4 months, then 55% of a parent`s (whichever stays home) for 8 months
-7$/day high quality public daycare
-education is almost free
-3 cycles of fertility treatments free until age 42

That sounds amazing! Better than the UK I think, especially with daycare and IVF. But we can hardly complain here either!

A friend of OH's posts on FB every bloody day about how she wishes she lived in America. She has a big council house, all benefits as she's a single SAHM, free nursery etc, and it annoys me so much that she's so naive about it all. She would literally have nothing in the same situation over there. Which is so sad because so many people are in the same situation over there.

 

[Jes.shortcake]

A friend of OH's posts on FB every bloody day about how she wishes she lived in America. She has a big council house, all benefits as she's a single SAHM, free nursery etc, and it annoys me so much that she's so naive about it all. She would literally have nothing in the same situation over there. Which is so sad because so many people are in the same situation over there.

I don't know any single SAHMs here. It's just not possible. You have to be at poverty level to get any kind of benefits here. And most benefits (the ones where you get actual money) are temporary and you must actively look for a job to get it. The only SAHMs I know on benefits are frauding the system bc they live with their boyfriends who make good money. Also..not sure what council housing is..but here we have income based housing. They go by your income to determine your rent. However where I live (not sure about the rest of America) those are in very bad areas. Not where I'd want to raise my family. (Nothing against people who do..hell, I grew up in income based apartments)